Today's News

SANTA FE (AP) — The Democratic speaker of the New Mexico House of Representatives says there is no way he would initiate impeachment proceedings against the state's governor for withdrawing troops from the border with Mexico.

An online petition seeks to impeach Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham for treason in withdrawing about 100 New Mexico National Guard troops and has garnered more than 30,000 signatures.

On Tuesday, House Speaker Brian Egolf of Santa Fe said "no way, forget about it" regarding prospects for impeachment proceedings. He holds the authority to initiate House investigations.

Lujan Grisham has challenged President Trump's description of a security crisis on the border, while leaving about a dozen national guardsmen at the border to address humanitarian needs in a remote corridor for border-crossing immigration.

Republican Minority Whip Rod Montoya of Farmington acknowledged Tuesday that the effort to impeach Lujan Grisham likely would not go far since Democrats control the House but that the governor and her supporters in the chamber should listen to the concerns of New Mexicans.

SANTA FE (AP) — The Democratic speaker of the New Mexico House of Representatives says there is no way he would initiate impeachment proceedings against the state's governor for withdrawing troops from the border with Mexico.

An online petition seeks to impeach Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham for treason in withdrawing about 100 New Mexico National Guard troops and has garnered more than 30,000 signatures.

On Tuesday, House Speaker Brian Egolf of Santa Fe said "no way, forget about it" regarding prospects for impeachment proceedings. He holds the authority to initiate House investigations.

Lujan Grisham has challenged President Trump's description of a security crisis on the border, while leaving about a dozen national guardsmen at the border to address humanitarian needs in a remote corridor for border-crossing immigration.

Impeachment in New Mexico requires a majority vote of all House members. A subsequent Senate trial requires a two-thirds majority to convict.

An influential state senator on Monday railed against a law that changed the way New Mexico taxes residential properties, saying the 2001 measure was supposed to help low-income people but instead has hurt them while providing a windfall to wealthier homeowners.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman John Arthur Smith, in remarks on the Senate floor, also said the law has robbed counties of needed tax revenue.

Smith, D-Deming, called the fallout from the law the "unintended consequences of the do-good of the Legislature."

The senator made the remarks in response to a story in Sunday's New Mexican, which examined the law's history and effects. It was designed to protect longtime homeowners in gentrified neighborhoods like Santa Fe's east side from being taxed out of their residences due to rising property values.

Under the law, which applies statewide, the market value of a residential property for tax purposes cannot be increased more than 3 percent a year as long as the owner remains the same. Resold and newly constructed residences are taxed at full market value.

After a midterm election in which Democrats wrested back control of the Governor's Office and expanded their majority in the state House of Representatives, Kelly Fajardo feels almost invisible at the Roundhouse this year.

Fajardo, you see, is a Republican representative in a Democrat-dominated House, where members of the GOP are now outnumbered by the largest margin in two decades.

"It just feels like we don't matter," said Fajardo, R-Los Lunas.

"Our job is to create good policy, and when you're going, 'I don't need you. I don't need to listen to you,' that creates a problem," she said. "I'm feeling that we're not being listened to."

Fajardo isn't alone.

Other members of the state's Republican Party say New Mexico Democrats, emboldened by big gains in November, are pushing through contentious and liberal-leaning legislation, including bills on abortion and guns, and completely ignoring their Republican counterparts.

If you are a fan of Los Alamos girls’ basketball, you have to be pretty happy right now. In the last two weeks, the Hilltoppers have taken down Española Valley and Pojoaque Valley, both games in which LAHS was the underdog.

Through the first rotation of district play, the Hilltoppers are undefeated and look like a real threat to win a district title. The odds of that happening before the season were monumental. This was a team that won a total of six games last year, and six games the year before that.

There has been a massive culture change over the last few months. Now, the girls expect to win every time they show up to the court. There is aggressiveness and a sense of confidence that has been missing for years.

For the most part, the girls remain the same from last year’s team. The difference is, with Lanse Carter now coaching the girls, they understand what it means to play as a team, have a better grasp on the fundamentals and have a solid game plan heading into every matchup.

Los Alamos National Laboratory, in collaboration with the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration Los Alamos Field Office and the National Park Service, will offer public tours of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park on April 5.

Registration for the event is on a first-come, first-served basis.

The day will consist of four tours of 25 people each, each lasting three hours.

The LANL event complements the April 6 Trinity Site Open House located on the northern portion of White Sands Missile Range near San Antonio, N.M.

Participants will see the Pond Cabin, which served as an office for Emilio Segrè’s Radioactivity Group studying plutonium, a battleship bunker used to protect equipment and staff during implosion design explosives testing, and the Slotin Building, site of Louis Slotin’s criticality accident.

Members of the public are invited to register for the tours on Event Brite beginning Feb. 25 at 10 a.m. LANL tour participants must be 18 years old, U.S. Citizens, and provide proof of citizenship at the tour check in.

The head of the state House of Representatives' Appropriations and Finance Committee on Saturday lit into the president of the University of New Mexico for cutting four popular sports programs to help balance the athletics department budget.

The chairwoman, Rep. Patricia Lundstrom, D-Gallup, said President Garnett Stokes rebuffed legislative offers of financial help when the UNM Board of Regents voted to eliminate men's soccer, beach volleyball and men's and women's skiing.

"Why did UNM refuse to work with me last July?" Lundstrom asked Stokes during a hearing that drew more than 100 people. "I'd like to understand that. When I went to your board of regents meeting to offer support, UNM refused to work with me.

"I am the appropriations' chairwoman, for goodness' sake," she added. "If it's about needing resources, wouldn't I be the appropriate one to work with?"

Stokes, who came on board as president a little less than a year ago, maintained a calm, steady tone as she explained that she and other university leaders had to make tough decisions as they grappled with a deficit of $1.9 million in the budget for academics.

The League of Women Voters will hear from four women who are truly leaders in the field of zero waste at their Feb. 19 Lunch with a Leader at Mesa Library at 11:45 a.m.

Sue Barns who came to work at Los Alamos National Laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow in microbiology in 1996 and remained until 2008 will talk about food waste; Angelica Gurule will explain the activities of the Environmental Services/Eco Station. She has a master’s degree in Sustainable Environmental Resources Management and a MS in Information, Science and Technology. She worked at LANL on pollution prevention before becoming manager of the Environmental Services/Eco Station.

Dorothy Brown will educate us about composting. Brown grew up in upstate NY and also lived in the Bay Area. She has worked as a registered nurse, physician assistant, and a flight instructor.

Los Alamos Little Theatre invites interested patrons and prospective actors to attend a play reading at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Green Room at the Performing Arts Center, 1670 Nectar St.

The evening’s reading will feature the eight short plays to be performed by LALT in May. The plays were selected from 22 scripts submitted by New Mexico playwrights.

This production format of short plays provides multiple opportunities for persons wishing to gain on-stage experience and offers a variety of roles and concepts to consider.

Some of the directors who have chosen the plays will be at the reading and can share their thoughts that went into the selections.

This is the sixth time LALT has produced the 8x10 play format. Auditions will be held 1-3 p.m. March 2, and 5-7 p.m. March 3.

The plays to be performed in May include “A Life,” by Gary Dontzig, ‘DWI,” by Dale Dunn, “Endless Questions,” by Mimi Adams, “For Lack of a Tail,” by John Cullinan, “Patient,” by Caroline Evarts, “Red Licorice,” by John Gustafson, and “Treason,” by Robert Benjamin.